The sudden resignation of Ken Lewis from Bank of America highlights, yet again, the risks that family and other businesses take in failing to prepare for the inevitable succession of leadership.
A succession plan doesn’t mean you have all the work done and the perfect successor is comfortably waiting in the wings, although that would be desirable. It does mean, at a minimum, that you have an interim CEO in place who can hold down the fort while certain details are worked out and long term plans are implemented. Developing an emergency plan also gives the Board or family a chance to discuss these often thorny subjects without stockholder worries, employee hand-wringing or the emotional burden that comes with a fallen leader.
Often, this process highlight gaps within the family or board about the suitability of a particular successor. (more…)
Finding ways to get things done more simply is an elusive target for most of us. Forbes magazine recently carried an article in which Ron Ahskenas, a managing partner at…
The NY Times runs a weekly column entitled the Corner Office, that discusses leadership lessons from CEO’s across a broad spectrum of companies. These interviews usually recall important tenets of successful leadership and serve as a valuable reminder about important lessons and how they should be applied.
The North Bay Business Journal, a publication of the New York Times, is a weekly business newspaper which covers the North Bay area of San Francisco – from the Golden Gate bridge north, including the Wine Country of Sonoma and Napa counties.
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“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I … I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
– Robert Frost
Several years ago when my father was in his final days, his bonhomie in full bloom, I sat in the room while the doctors administered a few basic tests to assess his cognition.
“What country do you live in,” they asked and Dad answered correctly.
“What city do you live in,” they asked. Dad answered “Grand Rapids,” correct again.
“What state do you live in,” they continued. Dad, ever alert, laughed and responded … “Discombobulation.”
I think my father would agree that the “state of discombobulation” is still a pretty good word choice today. So, maybe it’s also a good time for some fresh thinking … to shake things up, tip them upside down, to innovate … in other words, take a few calculated risks to see if we can generate some new ideas.
I read recently about Kevin Kelly, a high school football coach in Arkansas, who has developed a few football rules that most of us would find ludicrous, to wit:
1. His team hasn’t punted since 2007, when it did so as a sportsmanlike gesture in a very one-sided game.
During the last several meetings of the CEO Round Table, we’ve invested a lot of time with leading experts to discuss “Talent Management” issues. Experienced CEO’s understand that building a high performance company centers around the recruiting, retention and performance of talented executives. In building our knowledge and insights into these critical challenges, we’ve improved our recruiting skills, launched goal and performance management initiatives among member companies and learned about the strengths and weaknesses of compensation as a high performance driver.
In my experience, few CEO’s devote the necessary time to Talent Management. (more…)
The sudden resignation of Ken Lewis from Bank of America highlights, yet again, the risks that family and other businesses take in failing to prepare for the inevitable succession of leadership.
